Q. But isn't meditation also a 'doing'?
A. In the beginning, yes.
Even to sit silently is to do something.
Even to watch your mind is to do something.
In fact, in the beginning, meditation may seem more like a doing than anything else – because you are doing something that is not natural to you. Even when you are doing something perfectly natural – like just sitting, it can seem like an effort when it is formally imposed upon you.
Do you know, there is a Zen meditation technique called just sitting? But even there, participants struggle to achieve!
Yes, at the start, it is definitely going to be an effort. But in a deeper sense, meditation is not a doing – because when you do it the right way, when you really succeed in meditation, all efforts disappear.
When you become totally relaxed, when you stop trying to achieve results, when you simply enjoy the meditation, you will gradually stop even being aware that you are meditating. Then it will no longer be a doing!
Q. Swamiji, meditation seems like such a tough thing to enter into! I don't know if I can handle it…
A. See ma, if you think meditation is easy, it is easy. If you think it is difficult, it is difficult, that's all! So don't decide straight away that you are going to face many problems!
Experiencing yourself as the play of pure consciousness ON THE SPIRITUAL PATH, YOU NEED TO HAVE DEEP PASSION, WITH DEEP PATIENCE!
Actually, there is only one real obstacle on the path of meditation: your ego! Whatever other issues come up, whatever problems you face, be clear: they are just the different voices of the ego.
WHAT IS THE EGO?
The ego is nothing but your sense of 'self ', the collection of ideas and concepts that you have about yourself. Be very clear: the ego is nothing but a collection of ideas! It is an imaginary thing.
The ego doesn't even have a real existence. Yet it is this ego which is controlling your life!
It is the ego which creates a sense of separateness in you.
At birth, it separates you from your mother. Until the moment of birth there is no ego, no boundary. You are simply a part of your mother. At the moment of birth, when the umbilical cord is cut, you sense your own boundary for the first time.
In the very first year after birth, the ego builds your picture of yourself and the world.
The ego is responsible for your sense of 'me' and 'mine'.
Throughout your life, the ego puts you into the position of 'me versus them'. It separates you from your parents, from friends and strangers, from nature, from all of Existence.
Whenever you utter the word 'I', you are breaking away from Existence. You cannot really break away, because you are a part of Existence – but in your mind you break away. You create for yourself a world in which you are separate from all.
This world exists only in your mind – it is just a mental concept - but you allow this concept to rule all your actions.
You always hear people say, The ego is the root of all your misery. Why?
Because the ego thrives on hostility, on conflict. Any environment which creates a sense of isolation is the survival ground for the ego.
The ego may be a product of your own imagination, but it is a cunning animal! To stay alive, the ego creates a distorted version of reality in which all things are in a state of disharmony.
I can give you an easy way to catch the ego; to know when the ego is coming up.